Construction magnate Premchai Karnasuta and his driver will have to wait until the end of next month to find out whether they will be indicted by prosecutors, it has emerged.
Both men have been accused by police of bribing park officials for help after they were arrested for allegedly poaching wildlife at a protected sanctuary in Kanchanaburi.
Apichart Todamrong, executive director of Corruption Litigation Division 1, under the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), received the investigation report into the case from Counter Corruption Division (CCD) police said on Friday.
He said prosecutors will look into evidence cited in the report to determine whether there is a case for taking a prosecution and whether the men should be questioned further.
The bribery angle is front and foremost at present, he said, adding there are nine other related cases of wrongdoing against the men that are being handled by the Thong Pha Phum police in Kanchanaburi.
CDC deputy commander Watcharin Phusit said the division was ready to assist if prosecutors deem more interviews are needed.
Mr Premchai, his driver Yong Dodkrua and their lawyer turned up at the OAG's Department of Corruption Litigation Region 7 yesterday as police handed the investigation report over to the prosecutors.
The report includes a 199-page text file as well as an audio file recording of what is believed to be a conversation between Mr Yong and the park officers involving an offer of bribery. The pair spoke to prosecutors for 15 minutes and then left without issuing any public comment.
Mr Premchai, the 63-year-old president of Italian-Thai Development Plc (ITD), was apprehended with Mr Yong and two other suspected accomplices at Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary on Feb 4. The most notorious items found at their camp were the pelt of a rare black Indochinese leopard and a cooking pot containing leopard-meat soup.
Wichian Chinnawong, head of the sanctuary, led the team that arrested Mr Premchai and his camping companions. He has accused the tycoon of trying to bribe officials to get them off the hook.
He provided CCD investigators with audio recordings of conversations allegedly involving the two suspects, in which bribes were said to be offered. Mr Yong later claimed he had just been joking and would never offer a bribe, according to the CCD officers.
